Terms of Service

Agreement to Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legally binding agreement between you and Heritage Whisper LLC ("HeritageWhisper," "we," "us," or "our"), a Washington limited liability company.

By accessing or using HeritageWhisper.com (the "Service"), you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Table of Contents

1. Service Description
2. Eligibility and Account Requirements
3. Subscription Plans and Payments
4. Your Content and Ownership Rights
5. AI Processing and Accuracy
6. Family Sharing and Access Controls
7. Account Succession and Legacy Planning
8. Prohibited Uses
9. Our Intellectual Property
10. Service Management and Modifications
11. Termination and Account Deletion
12. Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability
13. Indemnification
14. Dispute Resolution
15. General Terms
16. Changes to These Terms
17. Contact Us

1. Service Description

What HeritageWhisper Does

HeritageWhisper is a voice recording and AI-powered storytelling platform designed to help families preserve life stories and memories. The Service includes:

Service Availability

HeritageWhisper is currently available only to users in the United States. We do not offer services to residents of the European Union or United Kingdom.

The Service requires internet access and is designed primarily for smartphone use, though it works on desktop browsers.

2. Eligibility and Account Requirements

Age Requirements

• You must be at least 18 years old to create an account and use HeritageWhisper.
• Users between 13-17 may use the Service only with verifiable parental consent, with the parent maintaining account control.
• We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Account Accuracy

When creating an account, you must provide:

• Accurate and current information
• A valid email address
• Your real name (for account security and succession planning)

You are responsible for:

• Maintaining the confidentiality of your password
• All activity under your account
• Notifying us immediately of unauthorized access

Account Usage

You may have access to multiple accounts (for example, your own account plus accounts you help manage for family members). Creating multiple accounts to circumvent free tier limitations or after account termination is prohibited.

3. Subscription Plans and Payments

Payment Terms

Enterprise Pricing

Senior living communities or organizations should contact sales@heritagewhisper.com for bulk pricing and features.

4. Your Content and Ownership Rights

You Own Your Content

Full ownership: You retain complete ownership and copyright of all:

• Voice recordings
• Stories and narratives
• Photos and images
• Edited text and transcriptions

HeritageWhisper claims zero ownership of your content.

Family Sharing

When you share your stories with family members, you remain the sole owner and creator of all content. Family members can view your stories but cannot add, edit, or delete them.

License You Grant Us

By uploading content, you grant HeritageWhisper a limited, non-exclusive license to:

• Store your content on our servers
• Process content through AI services (OpenAI) for transcription, analysis, and memoir generation
• Process audio through enhancement services (Auphonic) for noise reduction
• Render content through PDF generation services (PDFShift) for book export
• Display content to you and family members you authorize
• Create backups for data protection
• Generate transcriptions, insights, and AI-written memoir chapters

This license:

• Exists only to provide the Service
• Terminates when you delete content (except for backup retention periods)
• Does not allow us to use your content for marketing, training AI models, or any purpose beyond serving you

Your Responsibilities

You represent and warrant that:

• You own or have rights to all content you upload
• Your content does not violate anyone else's intellectual property rights
• Your content does not violate any laws
• You have consent from any person identifiable in photos or recordings

You are solely responsible for:

• The accuracy of your stories
• Any harm caused by your content
• Obtaining necessary permissions from others featured in your content

Feedback and Suggestions

If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback about HeritageWhisper ("Feedback"), you grant us the right to use that Feedback without compensation or attribution. This does not apply to your personal stories—only to suggestions about the Service itself.

5. AI Processing and Accuracy

How AI Works in Our Service

AI Accuracy Disclaimers

We do NOT guarantee:

• 100% accurate transcriptions
• Flawless AI-generated questions
• Complete capture of meaning or nuance

You acknowledge that:

• AI makes mistakes and misinterprets context
• Transcriptions may contain errors, especially with accents, unclear speech, background noise, technical terms, or uncommon names
• All AI-generated content is subject to your review and editing

Your Right to Edit

You can:

• Edit any transcription for accuracy
• Delete or modify AI-generated insights
• Regenerate questions or analysis

Training Data Policy

Your stories are NEVER used to:

• Train AI models (OpenAI or any other provider)
• Improve third-party algorithms
• Create datasets for research
• Provide examples to other users

All AI processing is ephemeral and conducted solely to serve you. See our Privacy Policy for the complete list of third-party service providers and how your data is handled.

6. Family Sharing and Access Controls

Permission Levels

Family Sharing & Reasonable Use

HeritageWhisper offers unlimited family member sharing to ensure your stories reach everyone who matters. Family members may view stories, listen to recordings, and (if set as Contributors) submit questions for you to answer.

While we don't impose hard limits on family sharing, this feature is subject to reasonable use. HeritageWhisper reserves the right to review accounts with unusually high invitation patterns that may indicate abuse, spam, or misuse of the platform.

7. Account Succession and Legacy Planning

Legacy Contact

You may designate a trusted person as your Legacy Contact through Settings > Privacy in your account. This person can be notified and given access to your stories if something happens to you.

How it works:

• Go to Settings > Privacy and add a Legacy Contact
• Provide their name, email, and relationship to you
• They receive a verification email to confirm
• You can change or remove your Legacy Contact at any time

Accessing a Deceased User's Account

If a user passes away, their designated Legacy Contact or immediate family may request access to the account by contacting support@heritagewhisper.com. We may require reasonable documentation to verify the request.

8. Prohibited Uses

You May NOT Use HeritageWhisper To:

Consequences of Violation

If you violate these Terms, we may:

• Suspend or terminate your account immediately
• Delete prohibited content
• Report illegal activity to law enforcement
• Pursue legal action for damages

9. Our Intellectual Property

What We Own

HeritageWhisper owns all rights to:

• The website design and code
• HeritageWhisper name, logo, and trademarks
• Software, algorithms, and functionality
• User interface and experience design
• Marketing materials and documentation

This does NOT include:

• Your personal stories and recordings (you own those)
• Third-party services we integrate with (OpenAI, Stripe, etc.)

Limited License to Use Our Service

We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to:

• Access and use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes
• Download copies of your own content
• Print or export your stories for family use

You may NOT:

• Sell, rent, or lease access to HeritageWhisper
• Create derivative products based on our Service
• Remove copyright notices or branding
• Use our trademarks without written permission
• Reproduce our software or user interface

10. Service Management and Modifications

Our Right to Manage the Service

We reserve the right to:

• Monitor accounts for Terms violations
• Remove content that violates these Terms
• Suspend accounts under investigation
• Refuse service to anyone for any legal reason
• Modify features or pricing

Service Interruptions

We do not guarantee:

• 100% uptime
• Uninterrupted access
• Zero data loss (though we maintain backups)
• Service will meet your specific needs

The Service may be unavailable due to:

• Scheduled maintenance
• Server failures
• Network issues
• Third-party service outages (OpenAI, Stripe, Supabase, Auphonic, PDFShift)
• Force majeure events

11. Termination and Account Deletion

Your Right to Cancel

You may cancel your account at any time by:

• Using the account settings in the Service, OR
• Emailing support@heritagewhisper.com

Upon account deletion:

• Your account and all content are permanently deleted
• All shared family access is immediately revoked
• This action cannot be undone — download your archive first if you want to keep your stories
• Premium subscriptions: If you cancel your subscription (not delete your account), access continues until the end of the paid period, then reverts to free tier limits. No refunds for partial periods.

Our Right to Terminate

We may suspend or terminate your account if:

• You violate these Terms
• You engage in illegal activity
• You abuse the Service or other users
• You fail to pay subscription fees
• We're required by law or court order
• We discontinue the Service entirely

13. Indemnification

You Agree to Defend and Indemnify Us

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless HeritageWhisper LLC and its officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising from your use of the Service or violation of these Terms.

14. Dispute Resolution

Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Informal Resolution First

Before filing any legal action, you agree to contact us at legal@heritagewhisper.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

Binding Arbitration

If informal resolution fails, disputes will be resolved through binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules.

15. General Terms

Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and HeritageWhisper regarding the Service.

Assignment

You may NOT assign these Terms or your account to anyone else. We MAY assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, that provision is severed from the Terms, and the remaining provisions remain in full effect.

16. Changes to These Terms

Our Right to Modify

We may update these Terms at any time to reflect:

• Changes in the Service
• Changes in the law
• Changes in business practices
• Improved clarity or accuracy

How We Notify You

For material changes:

• Email to your registered address
• Prominent notice on the website
• In-app notification

If you continue using the Service after changes take effect, you accept the new Terms.